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As everybody has unique thoughts and experiences, and all human existence is essentially about our experiences since they shape everything about us, how can morality not be relative?
Morals also affect society. It may be my experience that stealing things has a positive effect on my quality of life. However, if all people steal on a regular basis, society breaks down.
Law exists to smooth social relations and to order society. It doesn't have to be based on ethics or morality.
But ethics and the law are one in the same, codified rules of conduct both of which spring from morality and while all ethics and laws may not encompass all of a societies mores ethics and laws can not exist outside of a societies sense of morality.
If you are really interested in this issue, I recommend reading The Science of Good and Evil by Michael Shermer. It's a wonderful look at this issue. He discuss his idea of provisional morality, which is neither absolute nor relative. The idea is that morals or ethical rules are conditionally accepted by the group and are falsifiable like any scientific theory or under the same parameters as any theory. If morals are falsifiable, then they change as we learn more (i.e. that nonwhites are just as capable of thinking and governing as whites, that women are capable of voting, serving in office and working just like men, etc.).
In this light, morals aren't relative or absolute as they apply to most people in most circumstances most of the time, but they can change as new information and ideas take hold (i.e. abolition of spousal & child abuse, acceptance of abortion & gay rights, etc).
I hope I articulated this well enough to be understandable. For anyone interested in morality and evolution or morality and atheism, I highly recommend Shermer's book.
Law exists to smooth social relations and to order society. It doesn't have to be based on ethics or morality.
I wasn't suggesting that laws should be based on ethics or morality. I was suggesting that morals like laws can not be deemed righteous or not depending on the experiences or perceptions of an individual, when the rights of others will be effected.
It's pointless to use theft and murder as examples of bad morals; most people will agree (religious and not religious) that such acts are wrong.
Not all morals, although some special interest groups make the attempt, can be made into laws, especially those that are based on religious superstitions.
It's in this area that morals are relative.
It is unfortunate that in America morals are restricted to the realm of sexual behavior.
Last edited by Visvaldis; 01-28-2011 at 02:54 PM..
As everybody has unique thoughts and experiences, and all human existence is essentially about our experiences since they shape everything about us, how can morality not be relative?
Well of course you are correct. If we accept that morality is nothing more than a social contract that holds a society together, what has worked for one society may have been totally inadequate for another. For example; most western developed countries find polygamy to be immoral but is it immoral for a society with with a dangerously low ration of men to women to practice polygamy as the only way to maintain a viable population? I would think not. Neither is absolutely correct nor incorrect based upon the needs of the respective societies. That being the case, as you point out, questioning the relativity, in many cases, is a rather pointless.
It's pointless to use theft and murder as example of bad morals; most people will agree (religious and not religious) that such acts are wrong.
Most people would agree that they are wrong, for sure, but most still wouldn't agree on definitions of "murder" and "theft". See death penalty, abortion, copyright law, etc.
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